"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future"........
John F. Kennedy

Monday, September 7, 2009

“Outrageous” or “Inappropriate”

Happy Labor Day everyone. Below is the transcript of the televised remarks which President Obama will be giving to students from grade school through high school, at least to those schools whose superintendents and/or school boards permit the President’s remarks to be shown to their students.

Waterloo’s students will not hear this address because, according to news reports, the Superintendent says the remarks are “political.” I don’t know if the Waterloo School Board has instructed the administration to take this stance or if he did it on his own. At the moment, I do not know what the position of our other school districts are with regard to showing the speech.

I encourage each of you to review the transcript below and the actual speech (or replays of it) after it’s given tomorrow and draw your own conclusions. Please let me know what, if anything in it is of a political, controversial or inappropriate nature such that American students should not be exposed to it. I have obviously missed it if it is.

If you’re like me, you’ve heard all kinds of media reports about how “inappropriate” the President’s speech is for students to hear, how it is “brain-washing”, etc. You may have also heard such comments from your friends and neighbors.

I encourage you to share the transcript and the speech itself with your neighbors and friends who have expressed their concern (if not outrage) about it. I think it’s fair to say that, once again, some in the media and in our communities have distorted the message in an attempt to wound the messenger.

To think that one child, much less thousands, across the country might miss an opportunity to possibly be inspired by the President of the United States to stay in school and strive to improve is truly unfortunate to say the least.

I have heard (but have not yet confirmed) that President Reagan and Bush-One gave televised speeches to students. I don’t know if the same school districts or superintendents expressing outrage or alarm about President Obama’s remarks expressed such outrage with the previous presidents.

Feel free to provide your thoughts on this issue to school districts and newspapers (in letters to the editor, etc.) to let your feelings be known and to set the record straight. In doing so, I urge you to not let your emotions overcome you. We don’t want the tenor of our conversation to become the tenor of those who want to demonize everything Democrats or the President say or do.

"And this is the cause of my life -- new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American -- north, south, east, west, young, old -- will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege. "Ted Kennedy